Rev. Wright in a Different Light

During the last two weeks, excerpts from sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright
Jr., pastor for more than 35 years at Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's
South Side, have flooded the airwaves and dominated our discourse about the
presidential campaign and race. Wright has been depicted as a racial extremist,
or just a plain racist. A number of political figures and news commentators
have attempted to use Sen. Barack Obama's association with him to call into
question Obama's judgment and the sincerity of his commitment to unity.

I have been a member of Trinity, a church with an almost entirely African-American
congregation, for more than 25 years. I am, however, a white male. From a decidedly
different perspective than most Trinitarians, I have heard Wright preach about
racial inequality many times, in unvarnished and passionate terms.

In Obama's recent speech in Philadelphia on racial issues confronting our nation,
the senator eloquently observed that Rev. Wright's sermons reflect the difficult
experiences and frustrations of a generation.

It is important that we understand the dynamic Obama spoke about.

It also is important that we not let media coverage and political gamesmanship
isolate selected remarks by Wright to the exclusion of anything else that might
define him more accurately and completely.

I find it very troubling that we have distilled Wright's 35-year ministry to
a few phrases; no context whatsoever has been offered or explored.

I do have a bit of personal context. About 26 years ago, I became engaged to
my wife, an African-American. She was at that time and remains a member of Trinity.
Somewhere between the ring and the altar, my wife had second thoughts and broke
off the engagement. Her decision was grounded in race: So committed to black
causes, the daughter of parents subjected to unthinkable prejudice over the
years, an "up-and-coming" leader in the young black community, how
could she marry a white man?

Rev. Wright, whom I had met only in passing at the time and who was equally
if not more outspoken about "black" issues than he is today, somehow
found out about my wife's decision. He called and asked her to "drop everything"
and meet with him at Trinity. He spent four hours explaining his reaction to
her decision. Racial divisions were unacceptable, he said, no matter how great
or prolonged the pain that caused them. God would not want us to assess or make
decisions about people based on race. The world could make progress on issues
of race only if people were prepared to break down barriers that were much easier
to let stand.

Rev. Wright was pretty persuasive; he presided over our wedding a few months
later. In the years since, I have watched in utter awe as Wright has overseen
and constructed a support system for thousands in need on the South Side that
is far more impressive and effective than any governmental program possibly
could approach. And never in my life have I been welcomed more warmly and sincerely
than at Trinity. Never.

I hope that as a nation, we take advantage of the opportunity the recent focus
on Rev. Wright presents - to advance our dialogue on race in a meaningful and
unprecedented way. To do so, however, we need to appreciate that passion born
of difficulty does not always manifest itself in the kind of words with which
we are most comfortable. We also need to recognize that the basic goodness of
people like Jeremiah Wright is not always packaged conventionally.

The problems of race confronting us are immense. But if we sensationalize isolated
words for political advantage, casting aside the depth of feeling, circumstances
and context which inform them, those problems not only will remain immense,
they will be insoluble.

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William A. Von Hoene Jr. of Chicago is a member of Trinity United
Church of Christ.